Yates, A.M.: Stealer (2016)

As the bus-doors squealed shut, she fantasized about stealing the rainbow-striped balloon and drifting away to wherever the wind blew. Maybe to wherever her father was.

Victim mentality is difficult to let go. A person gets so wrapped up in what has been that they forget the future does not have to look the same. There are choices. However, getting to that point when one’s self-image seems shot to pieces and one’s position as underdog appears set in stone, is nigh to impossible.

Dee is 17 years old and considered an odd-ball. She is taller than most, has unusual hair and a scarred back. Her position on the social status totem pole is low. Laura, her only, and now ex-, friend, left her for a higher place. Predatory kids consider her easy bait.

“Don’t feed the wolves. Never feed the wolves.”

To top it all Dee thinks she is probably insane. She hears and sees stuff that the other kids apparently do not. Take Danny’s broken pencil:

Every tooth mark incised the instrument with Danny’s belief in magic – belief in gods who used magic.

And, the pencil…… It glowed and floated.

Her way out of victim mentality and hiding from the wolves slowly begins when the Vasquez brothers go after Danny. Dee ends up with dog shit in her hair, but facing her fears is slowly becoming possible.

Dee has a strange collection. A broken pencil, broken key-chain, broken glasses, broken lighter, broken needle and broken guitar pick probably do not seem like much to most of us. But Dee senses that these objects represent something more, and the only person with whom Dee dares talk about what she sees and hears is her grand-father. He is also the person who reveals who her father is, a man called River who turned up and disappeared right before his eyes. As it turns out, Dee’s heritage becomes essential to her survival. One day, a guy disappears with her collection. Dee desperately wants her things back but has no idea how to go about that.

Then, she sees a speaking glow bug that calls itself Nid. A a deal is made. Nid’s freedom pays for travelling to the place where the box has gone and making sure Dee gets back, safe and sound, to her family.

Yates has done a great job on her new world. Crescent is both similar and dissimilar to our own world. Society is highly stratified into different Breeds. At top are the “Leaders” and near the bottom are “Stealers”. Guess which one Dee belongs to. The right to naming and defining is a right we fight wars over. Stealers are a perfect example of what happens when the powers that be use their power to re-name. Stealers used to be called “Scouts”.

A scout is a person who seeks information about the unknown, one who goes in front, one who acts as a buffer for those behind while a stealer is a person who takes what does not belong to them. Instead of being part of a team, Stealers are now enslaved by those who can afford to own them. Propaganda has it that the only thing Stealers do well is run from trouble and steal your things. Propaganda also has it that as long as people fulfil the duties Leaders claim each breed must, all needs will be taken care of. As Stealer shows, propaganda in Crescent is as true as propaganda anywhere.

Some of the foreshadowing is obvious and trendy. For instance, Dee and Hunter. If two people meet, and that meeting is hostile, it is likely they will become lovers. Yates copies what has been urban fantasy fashion for a few years by throwing in a competitor for the main character’s affections.

Dee follows in the tradition of mystery parent giving the child great powers. Then something happens and those powers become immense. Although Dee does use her unexpected powers to get out of sticky situations, Yates usually manages to avoid the trap of overdoing it. Yates also writes Dee as a believable confused and surprised young woman in a confusing and surprising situation. Moving to a new culture is difficult. Language, traditions and presentation in Crescent are different to the ones of her own home town somewhere in the US.

Stealer is the first book in a Young Adult trilogy. It is 292 pages. Yates tells a story full of action and adventure with interesting characters, both the main- and the side-characters. I could identify with some of them. Crescent is a fun world with solutions I do think I have seen before. I really liked Stealer and definitely recommend it.

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Man by Steve Cotts

“Great,” Reese said, losing what little energy she had. She imagined it bleeding into the ground beneath her tailbone and shoulders. “You were supposed to be in a jail cell we could get you out of for money, not underground in a place pirates hide people they want to make disappear.”

The Eldritch canted his head, hair hissing against one shoulder. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll send you a bill,” Reese said, trying to get a hand under herself so she could sit up.

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